Author's Note: This is a total redux of a story I did a while ago called "Don't Cha." Basically I wanted to do a more thorough job of exploring a realistic possibility on how Sam and Jack could have met if Charlie never died. So, enjoy!
Chapter 1: Devil in the Dress Blues
Jack was surprised to see Charles Kawalsky. Not just Charles Kawalsky, but Kawalsky all dressed up and official, carrying an armored briefcase and looking very smug with himself. What he was doing in Jack's office at the academy was anyone's guess.
"I thought they had you working on some top-secret project," Jack asked, tapping his pen against a stack of manilla folders on his desk. He couldn't decide if he wanted to hug his old comrade-in-arms or slap him. He just looked too amused to find Colonel Jack O'Neill stuck behind a desk and grading things written by cadets who were ready to piss themselves whenever Jack looked their way.
Kawalsky just continued grinning as he sat down and dropped the heavy case with a clunk next to him. "Sorta, not really, I mean, I'm up at Cheyenne Mountain. Can't really say what I'm doing there. How's the kid?"
"Coming back today. Mad at his mom," Jack said. Kawalsky looked like the Colorado summer was starting to get to him, even in the air conditioned office, so Jack pulled a coke out of the mini fridge and tossed it to his friend. "You'd think that would make things easier seeing as it's something we can agree on, but…" He shrugged. "He's fourteen. What's in the box?"
"Top secret stuff." Kawalsky winked.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Jack rolled his eyes. "If the little kids here are gonna get to poke at it you can at least let me have a peek." He leaned forward like he was confiding some big secret to Kawalsky. "I'm dying of boredom here, so if it's anything remotely exciting…"
"Okay okay!" Kawalsky cast a look at the closed door, then stood and set the case on Jack's desk. "Just because it's you, Colonel." He popped the locks and opened the lid of the case. Nestled in the standard slate-gray foam was a sadly disappointing little cube.
Jack wrinkled his nose. "Uhm, what is it?"
"About all we know is what it isn't."
"So what isn't it?"
"We know it's not a bomb," Kawalsky said, running his finger around one edge of the cube. It had shiny sides, with matte edges, making it look a bit like a four sided touch screen. "We think it does something, there's faint electrical signals. But we don't really have the technology up at the mountain to open it up and figure it out."
Jack sat back and raised his eyebrows. "Where'd you get it?"
"Can't say." Kawalsky shot him another one of those damn cheeky grins. "Classified."
"I hate desk jobs," Jack muttered. He leaned forward and prodded the side of the cube.
It lit up, the sides flashing bright blue with symbols scanning over them. Both men jumped back in surprise. Jack had to admit that Kawalsky seemed especially, unnecessarily surprised, which had him worried.
Slowly, eyeing the cube like it was a dog about to lunge for his throat, Kawalsky drew his phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Carter," he said into it. "I'm in Colonel Jack O'Neill's office, and you need to get up here right now. It just did something."
"Who's Carter?" Jack asked when his friend had closed the phone.
"My second in command." Kawalsky let out a little nervous laugh. "Tall, blond, brilliant and I really wouldn't want to be up against her in combat. Aside from the fact that she's got a PhD in astrophysics, you're gonna like her. I've seen her take down a guy bigger than you in a knife fight."
Jack was sure his eyebrows came dangerously close to his hairline. He wasn't sure who he expected to walk through his office door. According to previous experience, he didn't quite believe Kawalsky's description. It left him imagining a passably attractive egg-head who was maybe quick enough to get the upper hand in a fight.
Carter proved him dead wrong on that. So she didn't look like the usual military scientists. And she was more than just 'passably attractive.' She also looked absolutely furious with her CO. "Sir," she hissed as she stalked into Jack's office. "With all due respect, what the hell are you doing?"
"Carter," Kawalsky said, giving her a lazy smile. "I'd like you to meet my former CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Jack, this is Major Samantha Carter."
"Colonel." Carter gave him a light nod, her expression relaxing a bit. She glanced back to Kawalsky. "He doesn't have clearance!"
Kawalsky was clearly used to this sort of behavior and waved one hand. "For one thing, I trust him. Secondly, you do realize they actually asked him to be on the Abydos mission? So he might as well be cleared."
"The whosa what now?" Jack asked, frowning.
"Five years ago, remember they tried to pull you into active duty?"
"Right, okay." Jack held out his hands, then pointed, attempting to draw the conversation back to the glowing elephant in the room. "Major, maybe you can actually give me a straight answer as to what this thing is."
"You activated it?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. She swallowed. "We don't know what it is and even if we did, I'm not sure I could tell you." Carter turned to Kawalsky again, her expression grave. "We need to let Hammond know. No one on the base was able to do anything with it. I could call - "
"Why call?" Kawalsky said, grinning. "It's not that far away. Hey, Jack, you wanna get out of the office for a bit?"
He had been to the Cheyenne Mountain complex a few times. Jack was the type of guy who liked to be out in the open field under the sky with the breeze in his face. He'd thought Kawalsky was that type of guy too, so he found it hard to imagine his friend working every single day deep in the heart of that pile of rock.
They took two different elevators down, all the way past the NORAD levels into an area Jack hadn't even known was still in use. Neither Carter nor Kawalsky offered any explanation, even as they got into heated arguments with several security checkpoint guards. Finally they led him down a hallway to a small office where a short, balding man sat behind a desk.
"General -" Kawalsky began, but the general cut him off.
"You'd better have a damn good reason for bringing a desk-jockey colonel from the academy in here."
Jack put on his most affronted look. "With all due respect, general, I highly resent that! I happen to have a good excuse for riding a desk all day." He caught a snort of laughter next to him and turned to see Carter trying her best not to giggle. She did shoot Jack a little kitty-whiskers type of grin, and he found himself thinking how cute it looked. Then he shook his head and looked back to General Hammond.
"Alright," Hammond said, still looking suspicious. "You said this has something to do with the device?"
Carter stepped forward and set the cube on the general's desk. "You'll remember all the simulations and tests we ran when we initially received the -" she stopped when Kawalsky nudged her shoulder. "Alright, just….watch this." She motioned Jack forward.
Jack shrugged and touched the top of the cube. Again it flashed to life. The general's forehead wrinkled.
"I was hoping," Carter continued, now looking at the general with a pleading expression. "That we could have Janet run some tests. The only explanation I can think of is that Colonel O'Neill has some sort of significant physiological difference to everyone we had test the device…"
"That would be up to Colonel O'Neill," Hammond said, continuing to peer at the cube. "And Dr. Fraiser would have to perform the tests off-base, at least unless he gets security clearance."
Jack sighed and checked his watch. "Well, whatever you want to do with me is gonna have to wait until tomorrow, I need to go pick up my kid from the bus station." He adopted his best stern, no-nonsense military face. "And before I agree to any sort of testing, I need to know exactly what it is I'm getting myself into."
"Colonel, we can't give you full disclosure." Hammond said.
"Partial disclosure? Fractional disclosure? At least the type of disclosure where I know if I'm gonna be drugged and or poked with needles? Because I really hate both of those things."
Carter shot him a look that was half amused, and half sympathetic. "General, I can write up a plan appropriate to his level of clearance and review it with Colonel O'Neill tonight."
"As long as you don't mind coming over to my house," Jack said. "Because I do not go back to the office after 5."
Hammond chewed the inside of his cheek, glowering at the three officers before him. Finally he gave a curt nod. "Very well."
Charlie O'Neill looked a lot like his dad. That was something Jack took pride in. What Charlie had gotten from Sarah were his bright, intelligent eyes and a soft, almost meditative presence. And as much as Jack might be loath to admit it, he liked those things too. Hell, Jack liked just about everything about his son. Well, maybe except for the scowl he was greeted with when Charlie got off the bus, carrying a backpack that looked more appropriate for an extended mountain camping trip.
"I'm not going back!" Charlie said by way of hello.
Jack shuffled and started back to the car. "You hungry, kid?"
"I mean it, Dad. I hate her new boyfriend and I hate his kids and I hate everything about Denver!"
When they reached Jack's truck he stopped and pulled the sullen teen into a one armed hug. "She's your mom, kiddo. She loves you."
Charlie grunted and shrugged his father's arm off, then tossed his pack in the back of the truck. "Do you even know how much of an ass David is?" he grumbled.
"Watch that mouth." Jack gave his son a pointed look. Then he cracked a grin. "But yes, I do as a matter of fact."
They got into the truck and started out of the parking lot. Charlie leaned against the door, sinking down into his oversized USAF hoodie.
"I've got someone coming over at 2100, just so you know," Jack said. "Just to do some work related stuff."
"Okay."
"You wanna just order pizza when we get home?"
"Okay."
Jack sighed and shook his head.
Samantha Carter looked exhausted when she showed up on Jack's doorstep later that night, holding a file folder under one arm. He let her in, vaguely wondering what on earth she could have spent the day doing in that mountain that would leave her looking like that.
"I could put on a pot of coffee," he said, raising his eyebrows as he led her into the living room.
Carter smiled weakly. "No sir, thank you though, I'm planning on heading right to bed after this." She sat down on the couch.
"You don't actually have to 'sir' me, you know," Jack said, wrinkling his nose a little and dropping into his favorite chair. "I spend my day yelling at cadets for starting food fights in the cafeteria, I'm not your commanding officer. Jack will do just fine."
She let out a little laugh and shook her head, pushing the file towards him. "All right...Jack. This is just a list of the tests we need to run. It's nothing invasive. A couple of MRIs and some blood work."
He flipped through the file quietly for a couple minutes, then closed it and tossed it back to her. "Well, if it's in the interest of furthering the human race…"
Carter gave him a rather enigmatic smile. "Oh, you have no idea."